About the Consultation
I am writing to express my severe concerns about the proposal to build ‘Popham New Town - building 3000 new houses on the site of Popham airfield in the middle of the beautiful Hampshire Downlands causing a huge increase in traffic and pollution affecting the environment, the destruction of swathes of beautiful rural habitats and further concreting over of greenfield land creating more stress on the water table and water courses.
My objections are as follow:-
There is already a substantial amount of house building on this side of Basingstoke reaching into the highly valued rural countryside. This proposal building on greenfield sites further destroys the character of the area as well as the natural habits of various flora and fauna and goes against efforts to deal with the challenges of climate change besides enabling the production of damaging emissions that a new town will introduce The current site hosts many shows, competitions, gatherings and other events that need a wide open spaces- that will all be lost to the local and wider community.
The Popham site is remote, far from places of employment, schools, shops, health facilities etc. Therefore to reach any of these, private vehicles will be needed or a whole new infrastructure of public transport will have to be created. Either way further pollution will ensue. If these homes are needed (and that is debateable), they should be placed where residents can easily reach amenities without further destroying the environment.
A complete new infrastructure would be needed: schools, health services, shops etc.on top of all the access roads. Those living there would need to find employment either in the local community or in London. Although Popham is only a mile away from the railway station at Micheldever Station, there is insufficient capacity on the mainline and in the local environment , particularly parking, to support a significant increase in rail user numbers from Micheldever. The station itself is not large enough and there is no access to platforms for those with reduced mobility. The area around the station would not allow for buses to drop off commuters or to turn around. The roads around the area are narrow and could not deal with significantly more traffic. The bridge across the rail track is for single cars only controlled by traffic lights!